


truce

by tsuluio



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Gen, Mask and omega bond for 0.2 sec, grizzco training yall, how to properly help kiddos w killing fish, theyre both Soft but won’t admit it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-05
Updated: 2019-07-05
Packaged: 2020-06-12 18:46:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19580137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsuluio/pseuds/tsuluio
Summary: Mask does one of those rare Grizzco shifts with Omega to help whatever unfortunate newbies want to be crushed by Salmonids. Maybe it isn’t so bad in the end.





	truce

**Author's Note:**

> thanks vivi for this idea :) I totally butchered it

The boat is almost full when he enters, and he finds a seat next to Omega, who’s staring blankly at the wall. 

“This boat is going to have two newbies.” She doesn’t look at him; she doesn’t need to. Too many conversations enabled them to talk to each other without making eye contact.Mask is fine with that. He’s never been one to face the person he’s talking to anyway. 

“We’re babysitting theeeen?” 

Omega shrugs. “Yeah. They’d all die without us.”

“If I get a paaaay cut for this, I’m going to blame yooooou.”

She tilts her head at him. “Then the act will be mutual.”

Mask just rolls his eyes and pulls out his phone. They’re heading to Ark Polaris today, a stage that he still doesn’t know as well as the others. The excessive grind rails are efficient, yet annoying at times. He just hopes they don’t run into any Grillers. 

“You choooose weapons yeeeet?” He shoves the phone into his pocket as Omega shifts slightly. 

“No. That’s a good idea.” She stands, making her way over to the weapon basket, gesturing to the newbies. They only stare at her, confused, and Mask heaves a sigh. 

“Go to the basket, close your eyes, and pick a weapon.”

“It’s random?” One of them asks nervously. 

“Yes.” Omega looks towards the ceiling as she rummages in the basket, pulling out a Splattershot and retreating. “Now you try.”

The second kid tentatively approaches the basket like it’ll bite her if she gets too close. She plunges a hand in, the other hand covering her eyes, and pulls out an Undercover Brella. 

“Nice one,” Omega says, more to raise the newbie’s self esteem than anything. She gives Mask a triumphant look. 

“Thanks!” The kid says, eyes sparkling too much for someone about to be overrun by Salmonids. Mask lets the corners of his mouth lift slightly as he looks towards the first kid who spoke. 

“You gonna goooo?”

“Oh! Right.” The first kid hurried towards the basket, pulling out the Hydra Splatling. He almost falls over from the weight of it, but manages to heft it to its proper placement before it can hit the deck. Omega makes a move as if to help him, and he shakes his head quickly. “I got it, I got it.”

Mask reaches into the basket last and pulls out the Octobrush. Not bad, considering he’s more used to Roller types, and he turns back as the boat lurches. 

“We’re almooost there,” he warns the newbies and their postures immediately tense. “Relaaax, you’ll be fine if you know what to do.”

“We collect eggs, right? Boss Salmonids and stuff.” 

“Thank cod you read the worker’s manual,” Omega tells the kid, and she beams. 

“Yeah, I was nervous about it. Skylar looked through it too,” she jerks a thumb at the other Inkling. “So we know the basics, at least?”

“Your name’s Skylar, huh?” Omega asks the first kid, who nods.

“I’m Skylar, she’s Ollie,” the boy nods. “You two are Omega and Mask, right? You’re famous!”

Omega smirks slightly, side-eyeing Mask. The jab is there, plain and clear. Though they have temporary truces during Salmon Run, the S4 and X4 are still rivals. Grizzco is neutral ground, but sometimes Mask just feels like opting out of the entire shift all together. 

Mask chooses to ignore her and answer Skylar’s question. “Yes. We aaare.”

“That’s awesome,” Ollie starts right as the boat comes to a stop, grip tightening on her Brella. “Oh cod, we’re here.”

“Super jump after us,” Omega tells them. “Mr. Grizz is at least nice enough to put super jump points on the map.”

“Oh! O-okay!” Ollie nods frantically. Mask can practically feel the anxiety rising off of the two of them in waves, and feels a slight pang of sympathy. He was just like this, if not worse off than these two. He had no one to help him his first shift, and he supposed that’s why he and Omega actually put up with each other to teach new Inklings. 

The super jump is smooth and he lands perfectly on the map, Omega besides him. Ollie and Skylar come right afterwards and they all pop out of squid form as the basket surfaces and Mr. Grizz’s voice echoes in their headsets. The horn sounds for the first boss. 

“Go for the booosses first,” Mask calls to the two younger Inklings as they start to paint the ground. “Make suuuure you have roooom to swim!”

Omega hums. “I think they’ll be fine.”

“You can never be tooooo sure,” Mask responds as he watches Ollie almost get swallowed by Maws. Skylar stands a short distance away and manages to empty an entire round of the Hydra onto the boss, popping it to get the eggs right as the horn sounds twice again. 

Omega disappears from Mask’s side to attack a line of Cohocks and Mask quickly makes his way down to where a lone egg from the Maws is bobbing. He grabs it before the Chum can and turns it into the basket. 

“Mask!” The previously cyan Inkling turns to see Omega pointing down to where Ollie is. Skylar is at Omega’s side, helping to bait a Steel Eel but Ollie is isolated farther away with a Flyfish. 

Mask quickly inks the ground, running towards the female Inkling right as she gets splatted from the Tenta Missiles. She won’t revive for another couple seconds so he quickly lobs a bomb into the Flyfish’s second chamber — Ollie seemed to have taken out the first one already — and revives Ollie’s life preserver as she resurfaces. 

She comes out gasping for air. “Thank you!” she says quickly and he nods in response. 

“Staaaay close by me,” he tells her, and she quickly salutes him (it reminds him of Army and he wonders briefly if the Orange Inkling will ever try Salmon Run again) and takes out a line of Chum while taking an egg. Skylar comes out of nowhere, Omega close behind, and both of them snag an egg before heading back to the basket. Ollie follows Mask back to the basket and though he doesn’t have an egg himself, he waits until she puts it into the basket before heading out again. There’s a Stinger at the edge of the water and Mask gestures to it.

“Youuuu want to take thaaaat?”

“Okay!” Ollie opens her Brella and shoots a line of ink for her to swim in. While Mask is dealing with a Scrapper, he can hear the familiar clang of pots as Ollie takes the Stinger out. He quickly puts all three of the Scrapper eggs into the basket before heading down to collect one from the Stinger. 

Their quota is filled in the next three seconds and they superjump back to the start for the second wave. 

It’s a Mothership wave, and judging by the panicked expressions of the newbies, they’ve never even heard of this before. 

“Attack the Mothership when it gets close,” Omega tells them quickly. 

“Hit the booooxes before they laaaand or we’ll have mooore Chum to deal with,” Mask adds as the wave starts. 

They manage to collect five eggs before the Mothership makes its move. Omega is already at the basket and starts to whale on it with the Hydra, which she had received from Skylar at the start of the second wave. Mask joins in with the Splattershot, but the two of them isn’t enough to stop the ship from taking three eggs. Ollie and Skylar arrive to help drive it away at the last second before it can take any others. 

“Sorry!” Ollie says nervously, “I got splatted and Skylar went to revive me.”

“It’s fine.” Omega pats her on the head with a slight smile. “The point of this is teamwork anyway. We need to revive teammates.”

Ollie doesn’t look convinced. “But we lost three eggs! What happens if we don’t meet quota?”

Omega and Mask exchange a look. Really,not meeting quota and blaming their teammates is a joke, but Mask feels guilty for even joking about it. Omega looks as poker-faced as ever, but her eyes are a bit less piercing. “It’ll be fiiine,” Mask says. “It’s your fiiirst shift anywaaay.”

They end up not meeting quota, because Ollie and Skylar are too inexperienced to really keep up with the fast pace of the wave. That’s what happens, Mask muses, when they have two Profreshionals on the same shift. 

The boat ride back to Inkopolis is long spent with streams of apologies from Ollie and Skylar. Omega just shakes her head at them. “Just know that it’s never your fault, alright? We’re all in this together, and by the end of it, there’s no one really responsible for this.”

“You two will get a pay cut though,” Skylar points out. “That’s unfair.”

Mask shrugs loosely. He doesn’t care about the cut as much anymore. He makes brief eye contact with Omega, who nods slightly. “It’s okaaaay. You down for anooother shift?”

“Another one?” Skylar repeats. “Even after we didn’t make it through this one?”

“Why not?” Omega asks, standing and stretching. She starts towards the sculpture of the bear above them. “If we get through this next shift, it’s enough to raise pay back to normal.”

“Right!” Ollie looks excited. “Let’s do it!”

Omega’s lips curve upwards a bit and she looks over at Mask, the two of them sharing a glance. Maybe they can hold off on the rivalry for a bit longer. 


End file.
